Mon 29 Dec 2014

16 Responses to “Reviewed by Mark D. Nevins: JOHN D. MacDONALD – The Damned.”

1. David Vineyard Says:
   December 29th, 2014 at 9:31 pm

   According to Rona Jaffe who was with Fawcett at that time ( her novel THE BEST OF EVERYTHING was based on her experiences to some extent) Spillane called them from the lobby and they sent Jaffe down to meet him, being the cute one in the office.

   By her own account shortly after meeting him she tore open her blouse and asked “How do you like these babies?”

   Whether that had anything to do with the blurb I don’t know.

   THE DAMNED is as close to Graham Greene in some ways as a crime novel. I’ve always thought novel was the operative word in dealing with JDM because he is a novelist however great his skills writing suspense.

   I would go so far as to say JDM was the voice of the fifties and early sixties in American fiction. I know that is a strong statement, but even in the mainstream writers like Mailer and Jones were writing more like JDM than not.

   JDM gets dismissed as a ‘good read’ or the best of the paperback originals, but I think within that ghetto he was saying things about us and our society that were particularly true at that point in time. I think at that moment he was saying those things better and more concisely than anyone else.

   That doesn’t make him the best writer of the era or the most artistic, but I think in a real way he was the truest voice of the period laboring unnoticed by the critics in the double ghetto of the crime field and the paperback original.

   And I read him for the asides, for JDM being JDM. Writing suspense can be done by lesser writers — what makes a great suspense novelist is the extent to which he is more novelist than suspense writer and able to create the tension because we care about the characters and not just because he knows how to manipulate and choreograph the action.

   I never read a JDM novel I didn’t want to know what happened to the people in it after the novel was finished. That’s the mark of a novelist, not a suspense writer.

2. Steve Says:
   December 29th, 2014 at 10:54 pm

   I don’t know how Rona Jaffee fits into the story, but it’s surely an interesting one.

   Here’s one that’s more relevant, and it may even be true:

   From Steve Scott’s blog:

   http://thetrapofsolidgold.blogspot.com/2009/12/damned.html

   “As good a novel as The Damned is, it would not have been as successful without that cover recommendation from writer Mickey Spillane. The value of his approval is proven by the fact that his name appears in larger print than the author of the book! Spillane was at the height of his popularity and power when The Damned was published, and one wonders why he would go out of his way to help an author he didn’t know and had never met. According to a 1981 interview with Dick Lupoff (quoted in the Shine’s Rave or Rage), it was an accident, followed by some quick thinking on the part of a Fawcett editor. MacDonald recalls:

   “The book has a cover band which says: “I wish I had written this book — Mickey Spillane.” I didn’t know the Mick at the time. Ralph Daigh, who was editorial director at Fawcett … loaned Spillane a set of galleys — and Mickey brought them back in and he said casually, “That’s a good book. I wish I had written it.” Ralph wrote it out on a card and said, “Here, Mick, sign it.” Mick said, “Yes, I’ll sign it.” … When the book came out, Spillane’s editors and lawyers and agents descended like a cloud of locusts on Ralph saying, “You can’t do this. Spillane never gives a blurb.” He said, “Gentlemen, I have it in writing and signed by Mr. Spillane and I have it dated. Now what do you want to do?”

   “That little trick probably helped make MacDonald a successful author a lot earlier than he might have without it. A testimony to its strength in selling books can be seen in the following three or four MacDonald novels, where Spillane’s name keeps appearing. Dead Low Tide’s cover featured a picture of The Damned, reminding would-be readers that this was the same author that Spillane had liked so much. The Neon Jungle features the reminder on its back cover: “Mickey Spillane: ‘I wish I had written this book’. Mickey was talking about John D. MacDonald’s The Damned. Well… here’s an even greater novel, The Neon Jungle, by the same author.” All These Condemned, written two years after The Damned, still featured Spillane’s blurb on the back cover.”

   The rest of the review is well worth reading, too.

3. Steve Says:
   December 29th, 2014 at 11:09 pm

   As it so happens, I’m about halfway through this book, even as I write this. It’s on the nightstand right next to my bed, along with six or seven other books I’m in the process of working my way through.

   I’m enjoying it immensely, and David, I agree with your assessment of JDM as a writer nearly 100%. What you say is an aspect of his writing that hadn’t occurred to me before — that he’s a novelist more than he is a crime fiction writer.

   But as I’ve been reading THE DAMNED, at the same time I’ve been wondering why his star seems to have fallen in recent years, and I now have a theory, or maybe only a hypothesis.

   I’ll have to think about this some more, but I perhaps a big reason that novelists are popular in their day is because they’re so greatly tuned into the attitudes and perceptions of the general public at the time, and as times change the books don’t change and they don’t seem to connect as well to readers as they once did.

   JDM was certainly popular in his day, but not so much any more. But lots of authors disappear almost as soon as they pass on, and JDM hasn’t vanished yet, and I think, David, you’re also right in saying it’s the people in his stories that keep your attention, and if you do it right as an author, people are always people.

   I’m still mulling this over, so I’ll not say more, but I hope this makes sense.

4. Dan Says:
   December 30th, 2014 at 4:25 am

   JDM just about defined Gold Medal in those days. Like Somerset Maugham, he was a writer very much of his time, but like Maugham, he can still be read with pleasure today.

5. Steve Says:
   December 30th, 2014 at 2:59 pm

   Out of curiosity, I looked on Amazon to compare sales rankings for JDM vs Maugham.

   MacDonald’s most popular book is DEEP BLUE GOOD-BYE, ranked #47,821.

   Maugham’s most popular book is OF HUMAN BONDAGE, ranked #267,725.

   Two stats that mean nothing out of context, but I have seen books with rankings in the 12 millionths.

   MacDonald is holding his own.

6. David Vineyard Says:
   December 30th, 2014 at 5:14 pm

   I’m not sure you can really compare Maugham to JDM. Aside from the length of his career Maugham was a bestselling writer, a recognized master of the short story, internationally known for his plays and the films of them and his books, and himself a celebrity appearing on screen or played on screen by actors like Herbert Marshall. He lead a public life you can’t compare to JDM, and even if his name was unfamiliar I imagine more people would know the titles of the films based on his work.

   JDM was popular and a bestseller later in his career, but he can’t compete with Maugham for name recognition. The number of great movies alone from Maugham’s work that are often shown or have been remade in contemporary times (I can think of three major films including remakes of RAZOR’S EDGE and the PAINTED VEIL and that Sean Penn version of UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN)far outweighs any knowledge of JDM outside of the mystery field.

   Maugham may not engender the same sales JDM does now, but his work is far from obscure. Many bookstores will have an entire section if Maugham including more obscure titles now in print like THE MAGICIAN and THE EXPLORER.

   And I don’t think what we are discussing here is as true of the McGee novels as it is the other works. I don’t know if they still are in print, but it wasn’t that long ago they reprinted quite a few of the McGee books in trade paperback. I saw a McGee title at Hastings two months ago.

   I do think it would benefit MacDonald’s works greatly though if there were more than two great films(and both CAPE FEAR). The list of major Maugham films still easy to find today is long. JDM has two films of the same book.

   Actually if I was going for an equivalency I would probably pick Alistair MacLean. And again I would assume the films of his work mean he is much better known in general today. He shared a publishing house — if not an imprint — came to the bestseller list early, and his work isn’t always readily available at bookstores.

   Like MacDonald he was a popular writer whose work is more of its time than some writers.

   JDM might well be more read today of the two, but I doubt he is as well known.

   All it takes though is for one critic or filmmaker to reawaken the public to MacDonald. Ian Fleming’s literary reputation was in the dumps until the Lycett biography fostered a revival and now Fleming is considered in England in Raymond Chandler territory to some extent.

   JDM’s reputation is intact, but something will have to renew interest in his work and a reevaluation would help. It would only take something on JDM in HARPERS, ATLANTIC, THE NEW YORKER, or THE NY TIMES BOOK REVIEW, or even a hit movie to push him in the light again.

   Minus that I think his work is likely going to become more obscure outside the genre because there are no reminders like big films of his work to keep his name out there.

   I think he is a major voice of his time, but being recognized as such and reevaluated as such are different matters.

7. Randy Cox Says:
   December 30th, 2014 at 5:52 pm

   I’m still waiting for someone to ask what Spillane said to Rona Jaffee after the question she asked in the story in the first comment.

8. David Vineyard Says:
   December 30th, 2014 at 8:25 pm

   Spillane was visiting the office in relation to a blurb though I don’t think Jaffe identified THE DAMNED specifically.

   I was frankly surprised it was unusual for him to visit considering he wrote for TRUE in that period, but according to her it was a big deal and in relation to a blurb for a book and I don’t know another GM with a Spillane blurb so …

   Getting back to MacDonald, a writer can be so tied to his age and to his skill at portraying that world that he doesn’t translate to new eras. I don’t think that is true of him, but two early books are so dated as to be almost science fiction today — in their portrayal of their settings — THE DAMNED and THE NEON JUNGLE,

   Even when it was written the border in THE DAMNED was no longer quite like JDM’s version — that was more the forties or even the thirties — and nothing like today with the drug wars, illegal immigration, and tensions. Similarly the inner city now would have to be a different ethnicity and culture with an entirely more violent level of gang culture and racial war than JDM’s fly in amber portrait in THE NEON JUNGLE.

   I’m afraid that as much as I admire his books, as good as they are, and for all his skills, the sex scenes might be the only parts of many of the non-McGee novels modern readers unaware of MacDonald will relate to. I’m not sure you could sell a CANCEL ALL OUR VOWS or MAN OF AFFAIRS to readers now. They would be as alien as his science fiction novels.

   Ironically the crime novels and playful ones like PLEASE WRITE FOR DETAILS and THE GIRL THE GOLD WATCH AND EVERYTHING might hold up better to modern readers.

9. Randy Cox Says:
   December 31st, 2014 at 12:03 pm

   I’m still waiting for someone to wonder what Spillane might have said to Rona Jaffe when she tore open her blouse. Maybe the story is apocryphal anyway, or can only be found in her gossip column.

10. Randy Cox Says:
    December 31st, 2014 at 12:08 pm

    Sorry, I guess I was thinking of someone else. Rona Jaffe never had a gossip column.

11. Steve Says:
    December 31st, 2014 at 1:45 pm

    Rona Barrett.

12. Randy Cox Says:
    December 31st, 2014 at 6:35 pm

    Steve,

    Thank you! That has to be the Rona I was thinking of.

13. Bill Crider Says:
    January 1st, 2015 at 4:16 pm

    Steve Stilwell were talking about JDM’s books just last night. I mentioned that I liked the social commentary in the books, even when it’s Travis McGee musing on things. Lots of current readers find this kind of thing annoying and boring. I never did, but then I was reading the books when they appeared, and I thought that the material was relevant and often right on the money. Reading the books now, I can easily put myself in a ’50s or ’60s frame of mind and enjoy them again. Mostly. Some things do bother me, but I can get past them easily enough.

14. David Vineyard Says:
    January 1st, 2015 at 8:19 pm

    Bill,

    I agree about the social commentary, and it isn’t always that dated since much of it is still relevant including McGee’s rant about New York. And how can you not read a writer who had she hero refer to the nubile bikini clad women on West Coast beaches as “Califorincus Sunbunnius?”

    I read JDM then and still do now for the rants and his way with the language, but readers today — and critics annoyingly — praise sub pulp hack work as ‘classic and cinematic.’

    I’m not sure they have the brains or attention span to understand what MacDonald was doing within the confines of the popular novel. His work is as good a commentary on the American culture, mindset, attitude, and growing discontent of the era as you are likely to find, and not a bad map of how we got where we are today.

15. Bill Crider Says:
    January 1st, 2015 at 10:14 pm

    I agree, David. You put it very well, much better than I could have.

16. Mark Nevins Says:
    January 7th, 2015 at 11:34 pm

    I’ll enthusiastically agree with Steve and Dan that David’s comments on JDM hit the nail on the head: he captures exactly why I like JDM’s writing, and better than I could have expressed it. While JDM is of his time and speaks with a strong voice colored by his times, I don’t find his work “dated”–rather, it offers great insights into psychology and the human condition (traits of a universally good novelist) while at the same time providing a fresh and vibrant view into what those times he’s writing about might have been like to live in. The comparison’s a bit of a stretch, but I get from JDM a little of what I get from Chaucer: great stories that capture a time and place but also speak to timeless themes of human nature and interaction.

Leave a Reply

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website